It's quite obvious at a theoretical level but not easy in terms of figuring out the actual process. A lot of science like that.

Adding other elements changes the taste,

This is not how chemistry works at all.

To start with, fatty acids also need Oxygen because of the COOH and OH group of the glycerin in fat. They are not hydrocarbons. You know what also is just made of Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen? Hundreds of thousands of molecules. All sugars and carbohydrates. If you allow for Nitrogen too, you could cover most molecules found in biological life.

None of this has any bearing on how difficult or complicated it is to synthesize these from more basic molecules like CO2 or H2.

this is a good https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01241-2 article on different ways this can be done

i learned the nazis made butter from coal!

Hopefully by producing a potentially profitable product, they’ll secure the funding to drive some carbon capture systems as well.

Butter is one of the few that I legitimately can’t tell the difference between the real thing and the vegan alternatives (some of them).

Cheese is the opposite. Not only have a never had a vegan cheese that tasted like real cheese, I’ve never had a vegan cheese that tasted good.

I don't know about international food, but the German vegan meat companies like Rügenwalder Mühle and Like meat have made huge leaps last year. Mortadella, Fleischwurst, Schnitzel and Chicken Nuggets all taste almost identical to the original. Ground "meat" is close, but you have to chose the right kind for each recipe. More complex stuff is still really bad tho. I say all of this as a passionate vegan meat hater.

Margarine is made of hydrogenated oil. This is chemically identical to the fatty acids in butter. It’s not an alternative for dietary purposes, it’s just a more planet friendly solution.

I see you didn't read the article

I think it's closer to the coal butter synthesis but maybe they found a more efficient method using other carbon sources

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine#Coal_butter

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process

It’s also closer to butter than butter alternatives. It’s not made to be more healthy, just more planet friendly.

Tilling, seeding, treating, and harvesting all require machinery and therefore increase carbon output in farming.

Well you see, animal sources are responsible for 3.7 billion tons and plant sources are responsible for -0.2 billion tons.

Take all the subsidies out of the dairy industry and see how competitively priced butter actually is.

Could be subsidized as a "real" carbon offset. That could make it competitive with other butters. Assuming it's actually legit.

“The big challenge is to drive down the price so that products like Savor’s become affordable to the masses—either the same cost as animal fats or less. Savor has a good chance of success here, because the key steps of their fat-production process already work in other industries,” Gates said.

Sounds like it's not currently price competitive but it might be in the future. I expect economies of scale would be helpful too.

They’re the same fatty acids found in butter. Margarine is hydrogenated oil.

Even if it is -- I'm interested in seeing how it performs. Feed some rats 3-5x the recommended amount, see what happens. Have some long term studies.

If it is the same as what we use, right now, for a lessened cost or environmental impact, that is still worth exploring.

The problem with Olestra (the anal leakage oil alternative) is it’s a mixture of hexa-, hepta-, and octa-esters of sucrose with various long chain fatty acids. The resulting radial arrangement is too large and irregular to move through the intestinal wall and be absorbed into the bloodstream.

What Savor has supposedly created is chemically identical to the fatty acids in butter. It’s not made of new compounds, but made in a new way.

What's up with people talking about shitting themselves?